Critical point systems, equilibrium phase

For any pure chemical species, there exists a critical temperature (Tc) and pressure (Pc) immediately below which an equilibrium exists between the liquid and vapor phases (1). Above these critical points a two-phase system coalesces into a single phase referred to as a supercritical fluid. Supercritical fluids have received a great deal of attention in a number of important scientific fields. Interest is primarily a result of the ease with which the chemical potential of a supercritical fluid can be varied simply by adjustment of the system pressure. That is, one can cover an enormous range of, for example, diffusivities, viscosities, and dielectric constants while maintaining simultaneously the inherent chemical structure of the solvent (1-6). As a consequence of their unique solvating character, supercritical fluids have been used extensively for extractions, chromatographic separations, chemical reaction processes, and enhanced oil recovery (2-6). 

The phase behavior observed in the quaternary systems A and B is also evidenced in ternary systems. Figure 4 shows the phase diagrams for systems made of AOT-water and two different oils. The phase diagram with decane was established by Assih (14) and that with isooctane has been established in our laboratory. At 25°C the isooctane system does not present a critical point and the inverse micellar phase is bounded by a two-phase domain where the inverse micellar phase is in equilibrium with a liquid crystalline phase, as for system B or system A when the W/S ratio is below 1.1. In the case of decane, a critical point has been evidenced by light scattering (15). Assih and al. have observed around the critical point a two-phase region where two microemulsions are in equilibrium. A three-phase equilibrium connects the liquid crystalline phase and this last region. 

It should be realized that unlike the study of equilibrium thermodynamics for which a model is often mapped onto Ising system, elementary mechanism of atomic motion plays a deterministic role in the kinetic study. In an actual alloy system, diffusion of an atomic species is mainly driven by vacancy mechanism. The incorporation of the vacancy mechanism into PPM formalism, however, is not readily achieved, since the abundant freedom of microscopic path of atomic movement demands intractable number of variational parameters. The present study is, therefore, limited to a simple spin kinetics, known as Glauber dynamics [14] for which flipping events at fixed lattice points drive the phase transition. Hence, the present study for a spin system is regarded as a precursor to an alloy kinetics. The limitation of the model is critically examined and pointed out in the subsequent sections. 

The dimensionless K. is regarded as a function of system T and P only and not of phase compositions. It must be exfjerimentally determined. Reference 64 provides charts of R (T,P) for a number of paraffinic hydrocarbons. K. is found to increase with an increase in system T and decrease with an increase in P. Away from the critical point, it is invariably assumed that the K, values of component i are independent of the other components present in the system. In the absence of experimental data, caution must be exercised in the use of K-factor charts for a given application. The term distribution coefficient is also used in the context of a solute (solid or liquid) distributed between two immiscible liquid phases yj and x. are then the equilibrium mole fractions of solute i in each liquid phase. 

As mentioned earlier, the physical properties of a liquid mixture near a UCST have many similarities to those of a (liquid + gas) mixture at the critical point. For example, the coefficient of expansion and the compressibility of the mixture become infinite at the UCST. If one has a solution with a composition near that of the UCEP, at a temperature above the UCST, and cools it, critical opalescence occurs. This is followed, upon further cooling, by a cloudy mixture that does not settle into two phases because the densities of the two liquids are the same at the UCEP. Further cooling results in a density difference and separation into two phases occurs. Examples are known of systems in which the densities of the two phases change in such a way that at a temperature well below the UCST. the solutions connected by the tie-line again have the same density.bb When this occurs, one of the phases separates into a shapeless mass or blob that remains suspended in the second phase. The tie-lines connecting these phases have been called isopycnics (constant density). Isopycnics usually occur only at a specific temperature. Either heating or cooling the mixture results in density differences between the two equilibrium phases, and separation into layers occurs. 

A detailed description of AA, BB, CC step-growth copolymerization with phase separation is an involved task. Generally, the system we are attempting to model is a polymerization which proceeds homogeneously until some critical point when phase separation occurs into what we will call hard and soft domains. Each chemical species present is assumed to distribute itself between the two phases at the instant of phase separation as dictated by equilibrium thermodynamics. The polymerization proceeds now in the separate domains, perhaps at differen-rates. The monomers continue to distribute themselves between the phases, according to thermodynamic dictates, insofar as the time scales of diffusion and reaction will allow. Newly-formed polymer goes to one or the other phase, also dictated by the thermodynamic preference of its built-in chain micro — architecture. 

Ternary equilibrium curves calculated by Scott,who developed the theory given here, are shown in Fig. 124 for x = 1000 and several values of X23. Tie lines are parallel to the 2,3-axis. The solute in each phase consists of a preponderance of one polymer component and a small proportion of the other. Critical points, which are easily derived from the analogy to a binary system, occur at... 

In contrast to the Gibbs ensemble discussed later in this chapter, a number of simulations are required per coexistence point, but the number can be quite small, especially for vapor-liquid equilibrium calculations away from the critical point. For example, for a one-component system near the triple point, the density of the dense liquid can be obtained from a single NPT simulation at zero pressure. The chemical potential of the liquid, in turn, determines the density of the (near-ideal) vapor phase so that only one simulation is required. The method has been extended to mixtures [12, 13]. Significantly lower statistical uncertainties were obtained in [13] compared to earlier Gibbs ensemble calculations of the same Lennard-Jones binary mixtures, but the NPT + test particle method calculations were based on longer simulations. 

Supercritical fluids represent a different type of alternative solvent to the others discussed in this book since they are not in the liquid state. A SCF is defined as a substance above its critical temperature (Tc) and pressure (Pc)1, but below the pressure required for condensation to a solid, see Figure 6.1 [1], The last requirement is often omitted since the pressure needed for condensation to occur is usually unpractically high. The critical point represents the highest temperature and pressure at which the substance can exist as a vapour and liquid in equilibrium. Hence, in a closed system, as the boiling point curve is ascended, increasing both temperature and pressure, the liquid becomes less dense due to thermal expansion and the gas becomes denser as the pressure rises. The densities of both phases thus converge until they become identical at the critical point. At this point, the two phases become indistinguishable and a SCF is obtained. 

During the 1940s, a large amount of solubility data was obtained by Francis (6, 7), who carried out measurements on hundreds of binary and ternary systems with liquid carbon dioxide just below its critical point. Francis (6, 7) found that liquid carbon dioxide is also an excellent solvent for organic materials and that many of the compounds studied were completely miscible. In 1955, Todd and Elgin (8) reported on phase equilibrium studies with supercritical ethylene and a number of... 

Two phases in equilibrium can became identical in a critical point. The calculation of critical points is done by solving the two conditions for a critical point as derived by Gibbs. For a system with N components these conditions are... 

The order of a transition can be illustrated for a fixed-stoichiometry system with the familiar P-T diagram for solid, liquid, and vapor phases in Fig. 17.2. The curves in Fig. 17.2 are sets of P and T at which the molar volume, V, has two distinct equilibrium values—the discontinuous change in molar volume as the system s equilibrium environment crosses a curve indicates that the phase transition is first order. Critical points where the change in the order parameter goes to zero (e.g., at the end of the vapor-liquid coexistence curve) are second-order transitions. 

CRITICAL COMPOSITION. Systems consisting of two liquid layers that are formed by the equilibrium between two partly miscible liquids, frequently have a constitute temperature or a critical solution temperature, beyund which Ihe two liquids are miscible in all proportions. At this temperature, ihe phase boundary disappears, and the two liquid layers merge into one. The composition of the mixture al that point is called the critical composition. There is, in some cases, a lower consolutc temperature as well as an upper consolule temperature. 

A plot of 2 vs. -t2 for symmetrical systems (i.e., ii vo) is shown in Fig. 1 for a series of values of the heat lerm, It shows how the partial vapor pressure of a component of a binary solution deviates positively from Raoult s law more and mure as the components become more unlike in their molecular attractive forces. Second, the place of T in die equation shows that tlic deviation is less die higher the temperature. Third, when the heat term becomes sufficiently large, there are three values of U2 for the same value of ay. This is like the three roots of the van der Waals equation, and corresponds to two liquid phases in equilibrium with each other. The criterion is diat at the critical point the first and second partial differentials of a-i and a are all zero. 

We note that even short-range interactions may, however, allow a mean-field scenario, if the system has a tricritical point, where three phases are in equilibrium. A well-known example is the 3He-4He system, where a line of critical points of the fluid-superfluid transition meets the coexistence curve of the 3He-4He liquid-liquid transition at its critical point [33]. In D = 3, tricriticality implies that mean-field theory is exact [11], independently from the range of interactions. Such a mechanism is quite natural in ternary systems. For one or two components it would require a further line of hidden phase transitions that meets the coexistence curve at or near its critical point. 

Abstract. A phase equilibriums in intermetallic compounds hydrides in the area of disordered a-, (3-phase in the framework of the model of non-ideal lattice gas are description. LaNi5 hydride was chosen as the subject for the model verification. Position of the critical point of the P—w.-transition in the LaNi5-hydrogen system was definite. 

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